Structural and Electrical Properties of Ag/SnO2 for Photovoltaic Applications

In this article, optical and electrical properties of ultra-thin Ag/SnO
2
structure were experimentally studied for indium-free transparent conductive oxide (In-free TCO) applications. The DC sputtering technique was used for the development of different thin-films. The impact of the silver (Ag) ultrathin top film on the TCO multilayer film, transmittance, optical properties and resistivity of the deposited tin-dioxide thin-film is analyzed by performed optoelectronic characterizations using the appropriate experimental techniques such as UV-Visible spectroscopy, XRD, and Hall effect measurements. The proposed bilayer structure shows a good transparency of 62% over the visible spectral range. Through experimental analysis, it is found that the recorded optoelectronic haacke's Figure-of-Merit (FoM=Transmittance at (550nm) / sheet resistance) of the proposed Ag/SnO
2
TCO layer is 6.7x10
^-4
Ω
^-1
, while the FoM of the conventional ultrathin SnO
2
is 2x10
^-6
Ω
^-1
, with an increasing of more than 95% at almost the same layer thickness (50 nm), Consequently, this contribution can provide new insights to boost the optoelectronic properties of transparent electrodes for high-performance and eco-friendly solar cells for photovoltaic applications.